Fox News firing tied to Ailes book

8/21/13 12:48 PM EDT

The decision last month by Fox News chief Roger Ailes to fire his top communications executive, Brian Lewis, was due to a number of factors, including what the network's parent company 21st Century Fox has described as “financial irregularities” and breaches of contract.

But one of the issues at play, sources with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO on Wednesday, was that Ailes had suspected Lewis of leaking information to Gabriel Sherman, the author of a forthcoming book about Ailes and Fox News.

As executive vice president of communications, Lewis's correspondence with Sherman came with the job. But on occasion, Lewis also discussed internal decision-making matters and spoke freely about network employees — the sort of thing that Ailes, a fierce protector of the Fox News brand, would likely view as a breach of trust.

In one conversation, which took place in April 2012 and that Sherman published on Tuesday night, Lewis told Sherman about the network's plans to take legal action against Gawker Media and Joe Muto, a former employee who had been leaking video and photographs from inside Fox News headquarters. He also called Bill O'Reilly, the network's top-rated host, a "chucklehead" who deserved "to get whacked" for posing for a photo with a topless girl.

A representative for 21st Century Fox declined to comment and referred POLITICO to last night's statement, in which the parent company said Lewis's contract was terminated after "an extensive internal investigation ... [which] determined that he should be terminated for cause, specifically for issues relating to financial irregularities, as well as for multiple, material and significant breaches of his employment contract." Sherman also declined to comment.

The fact that Sherman's book played some role in Lewis's firing is nevertheless starting to leak beyond Fox News's executive circle. On Tuesday night, Matt Drudge, founder of the influential Drudge Report site, tweeted, "TRUTH: Behind scenes shitstorm around reporter Gabriel Sherman and his anti-Ailes FOXNEWS book. Top source caught. Lawyers swarm scene."

As I reported in March, conservative media outlets — including some Fox News employees — have been engaged in an effort to discredit Sherman. Fox News pundits have taken to Twitter to call Sherman “a [George] Soros puppet,” a “phony journalist,” a “stalker” and “harasser."